in the press
Recently published an article
recognizing sustainable energy
scholarships
PINE RIDGE – Now more than ever it is important
we are all working toward just and sustainable energy
systems. Together we are creating a new way to
honor the old ways. Henry Red Cloud from the
Pine Ridge Reservation and Solar Energy
International (SEI) have worked together on
renewable energy training and projects for almost
20 years. Henry’s non-profit organization, Red
Cloud Renewable (RCR) and SEI created the
professional level Tribal Train the Trainer (T4)
Program that is designed specifically to build the
Native American solar workforce, while concurrently
providing the solar trainers and tribal solar advocate
network that will spread this technology all across
Indian Country!
Recently published an article
recognizing Henry Red Cloud's tree
planting plan
PINE RIDGE RESERVATION – For the past five
years, Henry Red Cloud has been planting trees.
We’ve had a number of fires throughout the
reservation. Some fires were sparked by lightening,
but most of the fires that have taken ruin to the
Pine Ridge reservation are due to negligence or even
arson.
Recently, the butte near the reservation’s KILI
Radio station caught fire. The entire hill and trees
were consumed by fire. Now when you look that the
butte, all you’ll see is a bunch of withered colored
trees. What was once a beautiful hill covered by
Ponderosa pine, providing a beautiful landscape, is
now a charred hill.
Recently published an article
recognizing Henry as leading
the renewable energy charge
There is a revolution under way to bring renewable
resources to Native American people. Led by
modern-day warrior Henry Red Cloud, a direct
fifth generation descendent of Red Cloud, the
famous Lakota war chief, and Trees, Water &
People (TWP), inroads are being made one home
and one business at a time.
Count among its most recent advances a two
kilowatt photovoltaic array installed in October at
KILI Radio, a public radio station serving the Lakota
people of the Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River and Rosebud reservations. The solar-power system was donated by Namasté Solar, while the manpower was provided by Red Cloud’s company, Lakota Solar Enterprises (LSE) and his Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center (RCREC). Count among the ranks of volunteers on site for the installation seven students from the Shoshone Bannock, Oglala Lakota, Cheyenne River Sioux, and Northern Cheyenne tribes—solar warriors in training at the RCREC.
Recently published an article
recognizing local non-profit
The Magnum Energy team has been excited to see
the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center come to
life. The nonprofit venture, begun by Lakota Henry
Red Cloud, is located on the Pine Ridge Reservation
in South Dakota and is dedicated to changing the
world through renewable energy education and
development. Sensata was pleased to support this
effort through a donation of Magnum Energy
inverter/chargers, interconnection system
equipment, and accessories that will be used in their
training workshops as part of their mobile solar
stations.
Recently published an article
recognizing RCREC
PINE RIDGE – Red Cloud Renewable (RCR) and
Solar Energy International (SEI) announced
selection of the first class of Native Americans to
receive a full scholarship as part of the professional
level Tribal Train the Trainer (T4) Program for Solar
Certification.
Seven Native Americans, four men and three
women from four tribes have accepted positions in
the program each receiving a scholarship that
covers their classes, travel, lodging, food,
workbooks and testing costs. The cohort will learn
through intensive classroom theory, and....
Recently published an article
recognizing Native American Solar
DOWN a dirt track on South Dakota’s bucolic
Pine Ridge Reservation, Henry Red Cloud is
working out a plan to help Native and indigenous
communities around the world make their own
electricity.
Through his Red Cloud Renewable Energy Centre,
Red Cloud hopes to one day supply all 562
federally recognized tribes in the US, and
eventually further afield, with cheap electricity
from solar farms and panel-mounted, mobile
trailer power banks.
Recently published an article
recognizing Oglalla Sioux fight
to free themselves from
fossil fuels
It’s high summer in South Dakota, and a cruel sun
beats down with an endless floodtide of photons that
burns skin through t-shirts and tinted car windows.
That’s the way Henry Red Cloud likes it. To Red
Cloud – descendant of a great Lakota insurgent
chief, founder of Lakota Solar, and self-proclaimed
“solar warrior” – that July sun is key to the
independence of his fellow Lakota and native
peoples across America; it also embodies a hot
business opportunity.
It’s July 5, the tail end of Red Cloud’s Energy Independence Day weekend, first announced in the wake of the Trump Inauguration, and meant to spread off-grid skills throughout Indian country – possibly with radical purpose.
I walked out of the sun and indoors to find Red Cloud leading a solar workshop, holding forth to a group of eager indigenous participants about photovoltaic cells and the danger of phantom loads – the way in which many appliances continue drawing current even when switched off. “Vampire” loads are a constant suck on household energy, consuming electricity and thereby emitting carbon to no purpose – while also draining an off-grid setup with limited juice.
Recently published an article
about the creation of energy
independents for South Dakota's
Native Peoples
It's high summer in South Dakota, and a cruel sun
beats down with an endless floodtide of photons that
burns skin through T-shirts and tinted car windows.
That's the way Henry Red Cloud likes it. To Red
Cloud—descendant of a great Lakota insurgent
chief, founder of Lakota Solar, and self-proclaimed
"solar warrior"—that July sun is key to the
independence of his fellow Lakota and native
peoples across America; it also embodies a hot
business opportunity.
Recently published an article
recognizing Henry Red Cloud
for building the foundations
of a renewable energy economy
from the ground up
Henry Red Cloud is creating a grass roots solar
movement for native peoples.
"As natives, we embrace renewable energy," he said.
"It's in our language, our song, our dance, our
ceremonies. Renewable energy can help families to
have lights for the first time and then have running
water — all of the necessities that we take, if we do
have it, we take for granted."
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